Go-with-the-Flow Saturday #7

Today certainly was a go-with-the-flow day.

I got in a walk with the dog again. This time my daughter came and I told her because it was still "dark out" that we had to be quiet. It was the quietest walk I've ever had with her. It felt nice.

When I got home, I spent the morning working on some meal prep. I made chicken for salads during the week. I also made mini-meatloaves that we can just throw in the microwave when we're hungry or I can take them to eat. So I accidentally made a very messy kitchen. I also made more hard boiled eggs. My daughter eats those, too, so it's nice to have them on hand. Then I made breakfast for myself and my husband (my daughter wanted her yogurt and cereal).

After a little downtime, I got my husband onboard with things I wanted to do. We went up to my classroom and started to fiddle about with things. The construction still isn't done, so I'm a little irked that I can't do everything I need to do, but I have some ideas now and I think I'll see if I can get him to go with me again tomorrow to put my vision into practice. It is incredibly hard to get a minimum of 12 desks at 6x6x6x6 apart in my classroom. My coworker got 15 in hers, so we'll see what I can do.

It was a pretty active morning, so my afternoon was relaxed.

Late in the day, I received an email from my district that I would be teaching 1 section of Literacy through eAcademy for, what they call, an overload. I was so excited! They had sent out a survey a bit ago and I had replied with a yes, but I hadn't heard anything. So I'm really excited to have been given the opportunity and the pay will be helpful, especially since my husband lost his clients due to the COVID stuff.

After that we got in the missed game of Sagrada from Thursday! I won, but not by much. I think technically my husband won, because we realized after scoring that I had a wonky die, but so did my daughter. So we enacted the "wonky die" house rule. It was my daughter's first time playing. So in spirit I won... technically I think it was a "false win."

The rest of the evening was bouncing between school work and watching television. I've found that I do not like the start of the Gilmore Girls Season 4. Too much tension, most of which doesn't even need to be there. Quite a bit of which is between Loralei and her mom. It felt forced and manufactured and immature. Like the writers felt like she needed to constantly explain the issues with her mother and then even Rory got in on the action. There are issues in their relationships, I get it... maybe too clearly, but geepers... Then the Luke thing! Sookie and the baby drama. Jackson really is a dolt. Oh goodness and this is where Zack "takes over" the band. I never really liked Zack. He's so whiny and immature. Oh and the whole Dean storyline... oh my goodness... Just lots of "what in the world is wrong with these people" storylines. Kirk, though, starts developing more and his weirdness is finally being appreciated. Huh... I wonder how many people have done academic papers on the way men are portrayed in the Sherman-Palladino worlds of Gilmore Girls and Mrs. Maisel.

But that was the day. Some catch up and some work. Really just going with whatever the day gave us.

Friday Night Movie #7

Oh boy was today a seriously messed up day and to not have played a game or watched a movie is not unheard of.

There were general house chores that were being done, but we also had to get the car to an oil change AND we had a grocery pick-up.

After groceries and picking up lunch, we got home and I had to do the whole "clear the fridge" task to make sure we had room for everything. I guess I went slightly overboard with the groceries, but I was thinking 2 weeks and I'm starting work so I should have enough food. But then I realized I would have to do some food prep. So maybe tomorrow I'll do the food prep.

Then my daughter's hair dye arrived and that was the fiasco of the afternoon. We ended up dying her body blue, as well as my hands, despite using gloves. And the blue didn't stick very well in her hair. Oh my goodness... fiasco. I was in tears and I was crying and it was just horrible! And there was next-to-no blue even in her hair. I made my daughter a Smurf....

And then I made Fluffy Japanese Pancakes to try to regroup from the troubling events that occured. They really hit the spot for everyone and it brought around the day to close in a very good place.

Tomorrow we are hoping to get back on track with somethings. It was really disappointing to have been derailed this week, but clearly something else was going on in the universe.

Tabletop Thursday #7

My husband wasn't feeling the best today and I think he forgot it was Tabletop Thursday. So we didn't get to play a game, because by the time I asked, he seemed resigned to pass today. Unusual, which truly says he wasn't in the best mood.

But I had quite a bit of work to do, so it was a busy day. We'll get a game in tomorrow.

Wii Wednesday #7 (Dungeons & Dragons Tuesday #7)

We got our Wii goin' early today, because we also had D&D to play. So my daughter started out with some dancing and then did a little Wii exercise.

Then I was able to get a game of Out of the Abyss started early. Since it's just the three of us, we can play at any time, plus if my mom was able to meet to take my daughter for the weekend, we'd be ready to go.

The game started off with a night's watch. It was Winter (lvl 3 dragonborn paladin), then Shesti (level 3 dragonborn  bard), and wrapping up with Bupiddo. Nothing eventful happened, but when they woke up the next morning Prince Derendil was not responsive, his eyes wide open. There were no visible wounds and Sprout (druid firbolg, me) suspected he ate some bad foraged food and looked around to see if others were not looking the best. The group decided to "bury" him. So some of them surrounded Prince Derendil with rocks and Winter, Shesti, and Sprout went off to gather some moss.

The group stumbled upon a muck pit that was lined with ample amounts of moss. While they attempted to walk through it and gather some, they encountered an Ochre Jelly! The group fought it off, but not without my daughter realizing that slashing it cuts it in two. 

Once they returned, they finished burying Prince Derendil and then were on their way. 

As they continued through the caverns, they came across a boneyard. As Shesti scavenged for some bones for an instrument, two Minotaur Skeletons approached the group. Ront took a large chunk of damage from a Great Axe.

Once they were able to take them out, the group continued moving until they encountered a gathering party of kou-toa. This group was out to take them prisoner so that they could use them as an offering to the Deep Father. I was rolling Nat20s like crazy today, so the entire party was caught with little trouble. Shesti, though, has some pretty great sleep spells and put the majority of them to sleep, but not enough to stop everyone from being captured. The became the catch of the day!

In a funny twist of fate, the group was then set upon by another group of kou-toa. This group took the prisoners as their own and fended off the other ones. This new group was led by the kuo-toa archpriest Ploopploopeen. He had other plans for the group:

“I am Ploopploopeen, archpriest of the Sea Mother Blibdoolvpoolp. She answers my prayers by delivering you. Help us, and you will be rewarded for your service.”

And that is where I left the group. Next time they will finally enter Sloobludop.

Dungeons & Dragons Tuesday #7 (moved to Wednesday)

Day 2 of anxiety sleep issues. I'm falling hard asleep at 9PM and waking up at 4AM. I couldn't fall back asleep, so I found myself downstairs by 4:45AM and watching Riverdale.

Then I started to try to do some school work, because we will be returning to the classroom for school.

At some point I started to just spiral into sadness and I couldn't put my finger on what it was, specifically, or if it was one thing within my control. I think everything was finally catching up to me and I just broke down into tears. I was trying to think of things that would make me happy, but there is so much going on in my head that there was a great deal of vying for space in my head.

Finally, though, I asked Ray to color my hair purple and from there it was a wave of happiness. The hair isn't perfect, but it's purple and that's what matters. I kept admiring it all day and it just makes me happy to have my hair this color.

Then Ray let me get sushi from our local sushi place and it was like heaven in my mouth. I get the whole idea of comfort food and not using food as a comfort tool, BUT this was different. It was the experience of having sushi. Not just the food in my mouth. It was using the chopsticks and savoring the explosion of flavors and the smell of the ginger. It was a package deal and it made me feel good inside.

The Rock Star I started drinking also kicked in and I was awake. By the end of the day I had a couple and I felt amazing!

I stopped worrying about getting in my steps or eating Keto. Whatever to my alarm that says I should go walk on the treadmill. No worrying about not being able to eat something you're craving, because it doesn't kick in. I had been having a hardcore craving for a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup and I ate it! I didn't scarf it. I like to peel away the chocolate. There's a ritual to it.

My mom called and it was all happy and positive. She seemed to have energy and good talking points. It was good!

I put the Gilmore Girls on and that show really is just a good thing to have on in the background. Maybe no more idiot shows.

Then my package of shirts I ordered arrived and I was excited to share all the cool ones I got from TeeTurtle for my daughter and the ones I got for me. It was the Halloween ones that were 50% off two weeks ago. My daughter even decided her and I would wear this one matching shirt together tomorrow. AWE!

Today felt like one of those snow days that Lorelai talks about. Just good everywhere. My husband's Pepsi was even on sale!

The sad part, though, is that my husband just really wasn't up for playing D&D today and my daughter was kind of upset about it. But it was just Out of the Abyss and taking a break is fine. We'll do it tomorrow. It's alright!

So what a great day! Good times!

Plan Ahead Sunday #6

I officially dislike Riverdale. I was totally into it until Season 3. Season 3 has completely alienated me from everything. It went way off the deep end with their character progressions and storylines. Disbelief suspension can only go so far and I am not a soap opera girl. There are some storylines that still peak my interest, but are so overshadowed by other problems. Right now I am very irritated with their D&D ... oh... sorry... G&G gang depictions. The writers clearly had issues with people who played and the culture behind it. And it's perpetuating a bad view of people who play. Discrimination and inequality are being leveled in this show, yet people love it. I am so disgusted by this. Especially since they have, not once, revealed that only a selection of people who play fall into a really warped mindset.

Oh... and let's not forget that Veronica is now some sort of genius business boss. Everything about her storyline infuriates me as unrealistic++. 

But I continue to give the damn show another chance and another chance and right now... I'm back in watching it again. Ahhhhh!!!! Even with the recent musical episode I just saw, it was better than what I had been watching prior to episode 15 of season 3.

Let's move away from the show, though, because I want to talk about the successful day I had. I met my water goal AND my step goal. I almost met my eat all keto goal, but I had a leftover sub from yesterday and wasn't going to let it go to waste.  I feel great. I had a bit of sleepiness, but I had some caffeine to wake up a bit.

I also was able to complete quite a few odd jobs preparing for the school year. I worked on student folders and then got some book talk presentations completed. Student folders are really time consuming, but we're starting a rough school year and I want to give them a boost in the right direction, so I'm taking the time to do these things now so that we can move forward with other things.

So essentially I was either walking on the treadmill or around the house or working on school work. My calendar is ready for the week, but everything is hinging on the news that will come out of two school districts on Wednesday. Will my daughter's district offer an online option for elementary students and will my district stay with a hybrid model?

Friday Night Movie #6

Today was a very difficult day for me, because I was very restless and my family was very into doing their own things. But despite any personal setbacks I was feeling, I still got to do a few things.

First, my husband said we had a little money for a splurge purchase. So I have gone completely out of my comfort zone gotten the outfit below. I also purchased black tights. Seriously nervous about it and wonder if I'll even wear it that much. I can always put together an outfit, but I don't always have the confidence to make it work on my body. And having gained so much weight over the last 6 months... this maybe wasn't the best time to get crazy with fashion. Or maybe it was! I'm also still looking for an overshirt to wear with it. Like... a shrug. We'll see.

Then I had time to plan movie night. We were going to do a double feature, but that didn't work out, because I started to not feel well. It was just the usual fatigue and physical discomfort. Nothing to phone out about.

When my husband and I went to the store, we saw some DANG! Root Beet and got the diet butterscotch, just for fun. I also saw the Buffalo popcorn salt, so I grabbed that. We got some keto friendly butter pecan ice cream to make floats and my husband got our daughter a Boston Cream Pie Klondike Bar.  If it was going to be a movie afternoon, we wanted to go all out and do something super special.

Our first movie was Big Trouble in Little China. I had seen many, many scenes and knew the plot, but I had never seen the movie. We also wanted to see if the genre was something interesting to our daughter. I adored the movie for it's Carpenter Kitsch factor. Our daughter picked up on things, but wasn't completely into the movie. I loved how Dungeon Crawl-y it was. Even had a beholder! 

It was after that that things went wonky for me. I was having trouble staying awake. I had had a rough night. Our dog woke up and was ready to puke on my head. (Yeah... laugh it up.) So I had already been up for almost 15 hours. I'm someone who definitely needs 8-10 hours of sleep a night, so I was slipping away quickly. 

We all agreed that we'd watch the second movie tomorrow and we each went out separate way. And I am going to bed.

Tabletop Thursday #6

Today I made up for some of the missing excitement from the previous day. First, my family was all up the same time as I was, so that's always weird to me. But since my husband was up, I got him to play around round of Pandemic Legacy Season 2... the intro mission. Sadly, we didn't win again. We aren't going to go into the game until we beat this beginner lesson, which we had already done, but it was so long ago.

After the game we did some general upkeep. I mailed out my Troop Slayer postcards. Also found out that my school district is going to be re-evaluating the plans they have for the Fall. We start school very soon and people are scrambling to get things in place and get things finalized and now the school board is going to revisit things. We're all in a hard position everywhere. I only wish I had some form of stability to know what is going to happen. Oh the times we live in. I figured, though, the news would be food for my mom, who really hopes I don't end up back in the school with kids. I understand her fear, but we'll make things work no matter what happens.

This afternoon, we set up Root. My daughter kabashed our game, because she was so tired and wanted to nap. So she went upstairs to take a nap. I fell into the trap of being on the couch when the sun is shinning in from the outside and got sucked into a cat nap.

Not wanting to doze anymore, I got my husband to play a game of Wii Bowling with me and then we did a quick Just Dance game. He was much better competition than my daughter. I really enjoyed playing with him.

Our sleepy daughter finally came downstairs and we were able to play Root! It was a bit heavier than I anticipated, but I'm sure plays faster once you know how to play. My daughter ended up having a small meltdown when I stopped her from getting her mouse card that would help her win. It was a little frustrating, but interesting.

Finally, I was excited to hear from my student teacher from the Spring. Turns out he has my two notebooks and a resource book I've been scouring the world for! I am so very, very excited about this news. I was devastated that I had lost my Reader's Notebook teacher copy, because I wanted to transfer it to the digital notebook I'm making. Now I can! I am so excited about it. I can now get to work on that notebook and organizing my lessons.

Wii Wednesday #6

We did not Wii today! Shame on us! There were just quite a few little things going on all over the place that didn't allow for it to happen. It was also a day when I was feeling incredibly rundown and emotional, so it was difficult to get motivated. I had wanted to Wii in the morning, but both my husband and daughter woke up after 9AM! That is incredibly unusual.

So I finished the write-up on our D&D session and watched some Critical Role. Then I started working on different little projects as my mind would allow.

My husband made calls about school for my daughter and it looks like we'll have some good news on that soon. 90% is pretty decent and I don't think a principal is going to hand out information willy-nilly like that. But then again... why didn't her district already have something like this in place? Right now there are so many questions and the answers are all so aloof. But it looks like we'll be able to keep Isabelle in the district AND she'll get to homeschool, which makes me so happy.

My husband is still waiting on his unemployment checks. We're starting to feel the press and it's not good. He started to go down the rabbit hole of contacting the various government departments to get paid. Augusts are always the worst for us, because of school and other various weirdness.

One of the projects I was able to work on was making a classroom wishlist, so if you're a charitable person out there reading this, here is my wishlist for materials and my wishlist for books (I teach Literacy).

Classroom Needs

Bookset Wishlist (any amount of any book will be better than nothing)

Today had to be a reset day. Hopefully tomorrow is much better!